Liverpool Managing Director Ian Ayre has joined the chorus of disapproval over Manchester City’srecord stadium naming rights deal by questioning its credibility and legality.

At the end of a week in which Arsene Wenger accused City of attempting to play by 'their own rules' and Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton claim a club’s heritage is more important than money, Ayre has added another weighty voice to the argument.

There has been a sense of disbelief at Anfield that City have struck a 10-year deal, worth £400million, to have their home rebranded The Etihad Stadium and Liverpool’s principal owner John W Henry sardonically asked on Twitter: ‘How much was the losing bid?’

More tellingly, Henry posted another tweet after Arsenal’s manager had made his comments in Kuala Lumpur that ‘Mr Wenger says boldly what everyone is thinking.’

It prompted Ayre to ask whether City’s tie-up with Abu Dhabi government owned Etihad Airways and the Abu Dhabi Royal family fitted within the parameters that UEFA have mapped out for Financial Fair Play initiative.

City maintain they have had open dialogue with UEFA but Ayre believes European football’s governing body have no choice but to mount a robust

‘They surprised me for a number of reasons,’ said Ayre, who is in Malaysia to watch Liverpool’s friendly against the national team today.

‘First, I don’t think it is consistent. It certainly hasn’t happened in Europe where a football club has renamed an existing stadium and it has had real value.

‘It was the City of Manchester Stadium or ‘Eastlands’ for the last nine years but now it is going to be called something different and someone has attached a huge amount of value to that. I find that a bit odd because it has never been done before.’

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Liverpool will be forced to explore a naming rights deal if they relocate to Stanley Park but the rebranding of Anfield would never happen.

Ayre added: ‘There is no benchmark in Europe, certainly in football, that says you can rename your stadium and generate that amount of value.

‘I find it very surprising. The second thing is when I spoke at the SoccerEx conference earlier this year, I was on a panel about Financial Fair Play.

'The guys from UEFA who are managing that process said that they felt there would be a proper and robust process around related party transactions.

‘Is Etihad, Manchester City and Sheik Mansour a related party? If it is, then it is for UEFA to rule on.

'But it is nothing to do with us. If it is right, good for Manchester City. Good for them. But I think it is for UEFA to answer questions on.’

Though City have links with kit manufacturers Umbro, Malmaison Hotels and travel firm Thomas Cook, their five main club sponsors — Etihad, aabar, Abu Dhabi tourism, Etisalat and Ferrostaal — are all heavily linked to Abu Dhabi.

Liverpool’s commercial deals are more evenly spread out and, in the terms of Carlsberg, some link-ups stretch back almost two decades.

‘We have got to keep pace with everybody,” said Ayre, who once ran a sports marketing business in Kuala Lumpur.

‘Kenny Dalglish made a point in a press conference here that we don’t focus on anyone else. We focus on ourselves.

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‘I happen to believe quite strongly that there are two major brands in English football who are truly global and that is Liverpool and another team from down the M62. We have a particular brand here, one that we have to be responsible for.

‘How we develop revenue at Liverpool is slightly different to others. We only pick our partners when we pick our sponsors.

'We try to work with people that we think are likeminded and will treat the brand and the name of Liverpool in a certain way. That is paying dividends for us.

‘I think that is more consistent and has more longevity than just going out and signing up loads of people.’